Thursday, June 22, 2017

Recap: Awesome Con 2017

Curls Studio celebrated our fifth non-stop appearance at Awesome Con on June 16-18, 2017. The show has massively grown from a small section of the DC Convention Center to nearly the full building over the course of five years! It is clear that Awesome Con is a force of pop culture that the Washington, DC area has been craving. Science, cosplay, comics, crafts, geek culture, film, celebrities, and more were represented.

On Friday evening Joe navigated the "Awesome Con Short Film Fest" to a standing room only crowd. As a follow-up on Saturday evening the same filmmakers represented in-person for the "Awesome Filmmakers: Making It Happen" panel. We will be releasing the audio from the filmmakers panel this Tuesday on the Carolyn and Joe Show.

I took part on the "Kickstarter: Dos and Don'ts" panel and "The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators" on Saturday. This was a day of professional development panels for me. I enjoy giving advice to upcoming creative producers. It did seem like some people in the audience are not creators and they came to the panels to discover what our lives are like as artists and writers.

A fan came to my table to have me sign an Adventure Time comic cover I illustrated. She told me she got Ryan North (creator of Dinosaur Comics) to sign it (he was on The Other Side of the Table panel and the writer of the Adventure Time comic). The next day I was able to bring my personal copies of the comic and have Ryan sign our previously unknown collaboration for me.

On Sunday morning Joe and I recorded a live podcast for the "Carolyn and Joe Show" with special guest, Karen Hallion. Karen is a phenomenal artist who has worked with Disney, DreamWorks, Cartoon Network, Her Universe, and many other top brands. We discussed her art career, how she met Gina Torres, and her upcoming project. We also celebrated our landmark 400 episode of the podcast and audio is now available for listening online here.

Later on Sunday I lead the Awesome Con Jr. event sponsored by Nickelodeon with my "Design Your Own Superhero Logo" seminar for kids. Children created a hero symbol for themselves. Some of the logos we created were for "Pizza Man" and "Sloth Man."

Awesome Con provided us with a great feeling to know we had a fun time with fans, friends, and other exhibitors. I was very exhausted after this show, but it was worth it. I am thankful we got to see a little bit of the show by going thru the "Stan Lee Museum" section and seeing many cool comic art pages, film props, and nostalgic items.

Thanks so much to Sean Causley for watching the table while we were gone at panels and thanks to the Awesome Con staff and Brute Squad for organizing a prime event in DC. In addition, thanks to everyone we talked to at the Curls Studio table -- even if you didn't buy anything and only took a promo postcard -- thank you for stopping by. We hope to see you at our next shows this fall -- Small Press Expo, Baltimore Comic-Con, and potentially more to be announced.

Carolyn Belefski is available for freelance illustration work, commissions, or design work. She has done freelance projects for BOOM! Studios (Cartoon Network's Adventure Time), Clorox, National Geographic, The White House, and more. Email info@curls-studio.com with your project need and budget.

Want to see Curls Studio at a show in your town? Let us know about it and let the organizers know that you'd like to see us there.

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If you enjoy Curls Studio products, please donate to keep us motivated and in action! We travel locally in DC, MD, and VA... but also need your support to pay for printing costs and travel expenses for events like New York Comic Con. Your help is needed and appreciated. You never know what could come your way if you donate to Curls Studio.

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About Me

Carolyn Belefski creates and publishes original comics and illustrations. Carolyn writes and draws the comic strip Curls. She also collaborates with writer Joe Carabeo on the comic books Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales, and The Legettes.
In 2010, Curls was nominated for the Friends of Lulu Kim Yale Award to recognize women in cartooning. In 2013 and 2014 Carolyn was voted Best Visual Artist runner-up for Washington City Paper’s Best of D.C. awards.
Carolyn became a National Cartoonists Society member in 2012, and is currently serving as a Washington, DC chapter Co-chair. With NCS, she started “Cartoonists Draw Blood” in Washington, DC by connecting with the American Red Cross, gathering local cartoonists, and organizing a blood drive where blood donors receive a sketch from a cartoonist.
Carolyn serves as editor-in-chief of Magic Bullet, Washington, DC’s comics newspaper anthology.
Carolyn has exhibited at New York Comic Con, Baltimore Comic-Con, Awesome Con, Small Press Expo, Pittsburgh Comic Arts Festival, Philly Alternative Comic Con, and many other comic conventions and art fairs.
CONTACT
info(at)curls-studio.com